Junior College

Snapchat users may be able to tag friends in their stories

Earlier this year, Snapchat added the ability to customize text fonts and a GIF option just a few days after Instagram added the features. "Our team has worked with Giphy to have the GIF removed and it should no longer appear", a Snap Inc. spokesperson quoted to Inverse.

As reported by TechCrunch, both Instagram and Snapchat temporarily removed the Giphy gif sticker feature after it appeared on both apps, signaling it was a problem with Giphy.

According to the outlet, when the term "crime" was searched, a GIF containing a hateful racial slur appeared. The offensive gif shows the phrase, "N****r Crime Death Counter - Keep Cranking Bonzo, the Numbers Just Keep on Climbing!" alongside a number ticker and a white gameshow-esque announcer.

The company is testing out a new tool that lets users tag anyone in photos and videos that are posted to Snapchat Stories.

The spokesperson says that all GIFs in Snapchat are meant to be "rated PG,".

Snapchat's official statement is "We have removed GIPHY from our application until we can be assured that this will never happen again".

Instagram made a similar move, and it's not clear when GIPHY will rectify the issue.

GIPHY is yet to make a comment about the matter.

The new tagging feature on Snapchat is still being tested and rolled out for a few users only for testing goal. While this may come as a disappointment to GIF lovers, don't you forget GIFs are active on Instagram's parent company, Facebook. The image messaging app faced heavy criticism in 2016 for creating an Asian "yellowface" stereotype augmented reality lens which gave people slanted eyes.